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We Remember

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When the planes hit the Twin Towers, I was in the library with my 10th grade English class. Word spread quickly around the school and panic set in. Living an hour outside Manhattan, most of my schoolmates had parents, relatives or loved ones who lived or worked in the city. Phone lines went down immediately, and it took a while before I knew my father was safe in his office at 30th Street and Madison Avenue. I remember lots of things about that morning and the events of the day. It’s important that we do.

Exactly two years ago, I was a TA teaching three 30-student freshman seminars at the University of Texas-Austin. I started each seminar with an icebreaker—a clip from YouTube or a quote on the board—something related to my professor’s topic of the day, something to start a dialogue that would continue into our discussion of the heavier material. On that particular Friday, I chose this quote:

Time is passing. Yet, for the United States of America, there will be no forgetting September the 11th. We will remember every rescuer who died in honor. We will remember every family that lives in grief. We will remember the fire and ash, the last phone calls, the funerals of children.  

– President George W. BushNovember 11, 2001

I was curious about how they would react, what they would say. These students were in the second and third grades when this happened. What would seven and eight year olds remember and carry with them? Out of those 90 students, many did remember that day and how it was explained to them. Almost all of them participated in that day’s 10th anniversary remembrance events around the campus.

This makes me wonder: How do we talk about 9/11 in classrooms? How do we pass these vivid memories along to our youth so that these sacrifices did not occur in vain? What do we tell our kids so that we, as a nation, will always remember?

Photo Credit: Flickr user DennisPatti


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